Dell PowerVault MD3420 - Manual (Page 83)

You can have a maximum of eight virtual disk copies in progress at one time. Any virtual disk copy greater
than eight has a status of Pending until one of the virtual disk copies with a status of In Progress
completes.
The following steps show the general process for creating a virtual disk copy:
1. Enable the Virtual Disk Copy feature.
2. Determine candidates for a virtual disk copy.
3. Create the target virtual disk and source virtual disk for a virtual disk copy.
Enabling The Virtual Disk Copy Feature
The first step in creating a virtual disk copy is to make sure the feature is enabled on the storage array.
You need a feature key to enable the feature. To enable the feature key file, use the command:
enable storageArray feature file="filename"
where, the file parameter is the complete file path and file name of a valid feature key file. Enclose the
file path and file name in quotation marks (" "). Valid file names for feature key files usually end with a .key
extension.
Determining Virtual Disk Copy Candidates
All virtual disks might not be available for use in virtual disk copy operations. To determine which
candidate virtual disks on the storage array can be used as a source virtual disk, use the show
virtualDiskCopy sourceCandidates command. To determine which candidate virtual disks on the
storage array can be used as a target virtual disk, use the show virtualDiskCopy targetCandidates
command. These commands return a list of the expansion enclosure, slot, and capacity information for
source virtual disk and target virtual disk candidates. You can use the show virtualDiskCopy
sourceCandidates and the show virtualDiskCopy targetCandidates commands only after you
have enabled the virtual disk copy feature.
A source virtual disk can be a standard or thin virtual disk. A target virtual disk can be a standard or thin
virtual disk in a disk group or disk pool and, if the legacy version is enabled, a legacy snapshot base virtual
disk.
Creating A Virtual Disk Copy
CAUTION: A virtual disk copy overwrites data on the target virtual disk. Ensure that you no longer
need the data or have backed up the data on the target virtual disk before starting a virtual disk
copy.
When you create a virtual disk copy, you must define which virtual disks to use for the source virtual disk
and target virtual disks. Define the source virtual disk and target virtual disk by the name of each virtual
disk. You can also define the copy priority and choose whether you want the target virtual disk to be write
enabled or read only after the data is copied from the source virtual disk.
Preparing Host Servers To Create A Virtual Disk Copy
CAUTION: Before you create a new copy of a source virtual disk, stop any data access (I/O)
activity or suspend data transfer to the source virtual disk (and, if applicable, the target disk) to
ensure that you capture an accurate point-in-time image of the source virtual disk. Close all
applications, including Windows Internet Explorer, to make sure all I/O activity has stopped.
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